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I'm flying to Athens, in 5 weeks. I'm going to do a 340km route from Athens to Patras and back, on the both sides of Ionian Sea.

Right now my max achievable distance is 200km (trekking bike, avg 24km/h). Two weeks ago I began doing gym twice a week, spinning twice a week, and long (100-200km) ride during weekends.

Are those 5 weeks enough to train myself for such distance? (with decent avg speed)

Also, is this route a good choice for late October? I dont want huge cold wind blowing on my face the whole day.

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    Totally depends on how long you want to do take. 340 km over 5 days would be fine, and fantastic fun. If you're going as a tourist, then you'll want to stop and explore, so the ride will be broken up into chunks. Otherwise if its a speed ride then you've probably left training a bit late. Play some Eye of the Tiger and pace yourself, then "maybe"
    – Criggie ♦
    Sep 21, 2015 at 22:52
  • How about climbing? With regard to fitness, how is your climbing fitness?
    – Zippy The Pinhead
    Sep 22, 2015 at 0:09
  • Yup, it would be a speed ride. Id like to finish it with the average above 20km/h, 23-24 would be best.
    – khernik
    Sep 22, 2015 at 7:41
  • I'm curious, looking at a previous route (using Strava) it looks significantly longer than 340km, especially if I understood that you're going there and back on both sides of the Ionian Sea. If I'm wrong I apologize.
    – leaflifelayf
    Sep 22, 2015 at 17:28
  • I agree - the minimum possible route from Athens to Patras, on one side of the sea, is 175km, so I'm curious about your actual route if it's really only 340km.
    – brendan
    Sep 30, 2015 at 6:18

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Try it out! For long distances it helps me personally to remind myself that anybody can cycle 100 km when I only have 100 km or so left. It may hurt, but really, any cyclist could do that. This turns your ride into 240 km, which is only 40 km more than what you seem to be comfortable with. And of course anybody can do 40 km ;-)

It all happens in your head, especially when you leave your comfort zone...

Planning/scheduling also helps me a lot when covering long distances more-or-less non-stop. Make a conservative schedule, e.g. based on 21 km/h (or whatever is "quite slow" for you) and taking planned longer rests (one or two?) into account. Based on that figure out your scheduled time for each 20 km and write it somewhere accessible while riding. If you planned conservatively, you will be able to stay ahead of your schedule. Then you can stay calm, and just ride with the feeling that you will manage. Use some of the "buffer" for smaller breaks.

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